Tales: Mystery and Occultism is Volume V of an edition of the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe, with an introduction by Edwin Markham. (I own the Funk & Wagnalls cameo edition published in 1904, rather than the one pictured. There are ten volumes altogether.) This volume contains stories like the classic treasure-hunt novella "The Gold-Bug," the equally classic horror tale "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar," and "The Imp of the Perverse," which is actually just a pseudo-philosophical essay with a thin fictional premise attached near the end, almost as an afterthought.

Reading a book like this from cover to cover underscores the extraordinary fact that Poe's lasting literary fame rests solely on about a dozen stories and a couple of poems. He wrote much more than that, but the vast majority of it is dull, dusty and essentially unreadable. Take "William Wilson," for example: he apparently considered it one of his finer works, but I found it long-winded, totally lacking in atmosphere (and it goes without saying that Poe was more than capable of impressive atmospheric effects), and a drearily pointless exercise overall. The story seems to have been written only to allow Wilson's sinister double to deliver the melodramatic line which closes the piece, and whatever impact it was intended to have is almost entirely negated by the murky jumble of events that preceded it. To put it another way, the pieces just don't fit together correctly. (In 1913, "William Wilson" served as the inspiration for Stellan Rye and Paul Wegener's A Student of Prague, the very first feature-length horror film and a landmark of world cinema. The film is far more compelling than the story.)

But far be it from me to criticize Poe too much. To one extent or another he is responsible for creating all of the genre fiction that I love, from horror to private detection, and if you read nothing but "M. Valdemar," it will be time well spent. Certainly one of those dozen tales that guarantee Poe's eternal relevance, it contains the very first graphically horrific denouement of its kind. This brand of horror was taken further by subsequent authors, of course, but few did it with as much intelligence and style as Poe--and it still packs a punch. Two and a half stars for the entire book; five for "M. Valdemar." ( )